The present invention relates to swimming pools, and more particularly to above-ground prefabricated swimming pools in which common components can be used to construct pools of different sizes.
In the design and construction of prefabricated above-ground pools, the cost of fabricating standard components is a major consideration. It is necessary to provide pools of a variety of sizes to accommodate the available space and the diverse desires of consumers, and the variety of components necessary for the construction of such pools is thus very large. Accordingly, the cost of manufacturing the prefabricated pool components is increased because production runs are shorter. Additionally, distributors and retailers of pools must carry large inventories, a problem which is particularly acute in areas where the sale of pools is highly seasonal.
According to known swimming pool constructions, a cylindrical wall is supported by vertical posts spaced about its periphery. A series of lip members are arranged end-to-end about the top of the wall and supported by the posts. It is conventional to attach the lip members to the posts with connecting hardware that fixes the angle formed by adjacent lip members. This angle is a function of the number of posts used in the pool. Thus each successive size of pool generally requires the prefabrication of different structural components such as lip members, posts and connecting hardware so that the number of posts can be increased. Alternatively, if the same number of posts is used as the pool size is increased, the strength of the posts must be increased with the pool size, and the length of the lip member must be varied.